It was a busy few weeks after the FE Lobby of Parliament and in the build up to Annual Conference. As well as spending time in the office getting on with work I:

• Attended the NEC delegation meeting

• Gave evidence to the Education and Skills select committee with Clinton Ritchie, Student Governor at Lewisham College about post 16 skills

• Spoke at UCU’s ‘Save ESOL’ Lobby of Parliament.

• Campaigned at the Surrey referendum

• Visited Manchester College of Art and Technology

• Attended the March NEC meeting

• Spoke at the launch of London UCU’s alternative FE manifesto

• Met with some members of the socialist students campaign to discuss the Admission: Impossible Campaign

• Attended a training session for chairing Annual Conference

• Attended Drafting Commissions for Annual Conference on behalf of the NEC

• Attended a meeting of the Further Education Health and Safety Committee

• Attended Women’s Conference- congratulations to Kat Stark on getting re-elected, it’s been a brilliant experience working with the Women’s Campaign this year and under her leadership it will have another hugely successful year

Third time lucky- this years Annual Conference was the best that I’ve been to. Not always in terms of policy, I was once again shocked and disappointed that conference voted through policy in favour of targeted grants but I was delighted with the text that was passed on the Further Education Bill and Adult Education and most importantly the motion mandating NUS to have a full and open Governance Review. Congratulations to all those who were elected and commiserations to those who weren’t. Particular congratulations to Beth Walker, VP FE elect, who is going to be absolutely fantastic. Seeing as it was my last conference, there were lots of mixed emotions and lots more that I want to say about it but frankly I’m too busy getting on with some real work so I’ll leave it until my final BLOG in a few months!

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